The Drawing Room

Tenzin Choegyal is one of the world's leading Tibetan musicians, fusing the traditions of nomadic musical culture with his own contemporary style.

He's worked with the luminaries of the musical world, has been nominated for a Grammy and even performed for the Dalai Lama.

In the Drawing Room, Tenzin shares the sounds of his youth and his reminiscences of Archie Roach.

The Phantom of the Opera is one of the most successful shows of all time: a mammoth piece of musical theatre that swiftly became part of the cultural zeitgeist and ended up as the longest running musical in Broadway history.

So how do you bring a production of that scale to the stage and keep it running? And what brings audience members back time-and-time again?

Seth Sklar-Heyn, the associate director of the new Australian tour, has been involved with the show for many years, and in the Drawing Room he shares the ideas behind the updated production and why explains why the staff doors at Disneyland started his own path to the theatre.

When a crime occurs, it leaves behind questions. We search for an understanding: the who, the what, and the how. But for journalists the biggest question is often why?

In the Drawing Room, Patrick Radden Keefe and Kate McClymont share their experiences reporting on cons: how to manage a source; whether empathy is possible; and what to do when your subject offers you a job.

The 'unicorn' is the great prize of startups: a privately held company valued at more than one billion dollars. Building a unicorn doesn't just make fortunes, it makes legends.

But, like the name suggests, those remarkable stories of success are few and far between, and not without their share of risk.

David Shein founded perhaps Australia's first unicorn—Com Tech—and has gone on to become a venture capitalist, helping other companies find their own success.

In the Drawing Room, David shares the wisdom he's learnt from his years in business, and talks about his book, The Dumbest Guy at the Table.

Pankaj Mishra is a celebrated thinker and essayist writing on politics, literature, and philosophy for many of the world's best papers and magazines.

But it was fiction where he made his name, and, this year, Mishra has returned to that form with his first novel in two decades: Run and Hide.

The book follows the story of Arun, the child of a relatively poor regional family who escapes his upbringing through academic excellence, but rarely seems at peace with his place in the world.

It looks at India's present through its recent past and explores the way we're shaped by our own experience, even when we'd rather set the past aside.

Aftersun is a remarkable debut feature: a story of family and memory; of looking back and coming-of-age.

In a Turkish beachside resort, somewhere in the 1990s, 11 year-old Sophie and her dad, Calum, are spending the holidays together, ahead of his 31st birthday.

They have the casual, easy affection of a pair that genuinely likes each other, but under the attentive and loving exterior, we see hints of the darkness that Calum is grappling with.

In the Drawing Room, the film's writer and director Charlotte Wells discusses personal inspiration, trusting the audience, and recreating the 90s.

Leonor was once a big deal in the film industry in the Philippines, creating the sort of action movies that were once turned out by the hundreds each year.

When a freak accident leaves her in a coma, Leonor finds herself in one of her own films, walking in on sex scenes and pre-empting the lines before a fight.

Leonor Will Never Die melds independent modern cinema with classic Filipino action and creates something entirely unique.

Martika Ramirez Escobar is the film's writer and director and in the Drawing Room, she speaks about the story behind her debut feature.

Science fiction invites us to imagine the universe as it could be, and to find our place in it. "To boldly go," as one show put it.

In a 1968 episode of Star Trek, the writers dreamt up a new engine called an ion engine, a fanciful form of propulsion.

Some years later NASA, inspired by Star Trek, decided to prototype the engine and it worked. It's often quoted as an example of science fiction inspiring science.

These days, Dr Brad Tucker and Dr Natasha Hurley-Walker are highly regarded scientists: experts in their fields of astrophysics and radio-astronomy.

But once upon a time, they were young people, wondering what their future would hold.

In the Drawing Room, they share their inspirations and the way it impacts their work today.

You don't have to look far in the political news to find a story about mates doing favours for mates.

But while some cases of political mateship reach the front page, many of them slide through in the grey area of 'how things work'.

But are backroom favours and a revolving door between regulators and  the industries they govern really a natural part of doing business?

Rigged, by Cameron K Murray and Paul Frijters looks at the game of mates in Australia and sets out to explain the cost.

Across a remarkable body of work, Carlos Reygadas has built a reputation as one of the more intriguing directors working today: celebrated around the world, including at Cannes, where he has received the best director award.

Natalia López Gallardo's debut, Robe of Gems, is gathering similar compliments, garnering critical acclaim and winning the Silver Bear Award at the Berlin Film Festival.

Natalia and Carlos have worked together across a number of films and in the Drawing Room they discuss their philosophies about the role of cinema.